Policy

A statement from the Immigrants' List Board of Directors:

The spending bill for the federal government signed into law on February 15, contrary to reports in the media, is far from a bipartisan compromise. The new spending bill includes:

$1.375 billion for repairs and an additional 55 miles of new border fencing and security

Increasing funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), making it the highest total of annual funding for both agencies, greater than the FBI and DEA

Increasing detention space by a significant margin, keeping detention beds at the same level even though most undocumented immigrants who are caught do not warrant or qualify being detained

Completely disregarding solutions for Dreamers and TPS recipients

Traditionally, in a negotiation, everyone gets something, but this bill is not a true negotiation.

Backing down is NOT a negotiation. More beds in detention centers is NOT A WIN.

Hundreds of thousands of government workers were financially impacted by the partial shutdown last month, and the Trump administration and their GOP allies are still using them as political pawns knowing that both sides are being pressured to keep the government from shutting down again. The lives of government workers, immigrants, and asylum seekers are on the line, but everyone still loses with this bill.

This bill naively buys into the notion that enforcement-only immigration policies are the solution to the problems at our borders and for undocumented immigrants. At Immigrants’ List, we are exceedingly disappointed this deal is absent solutions for Dreamers and TPS recipients and for the whole immigration system.